Rocky Hill Students Dedicate Themselves To Community Service

When math teacher Maureen Fahey came to Rocky Hill School in East Greenwich 17 years ago, there was already a community service requirement for students to graduate. An active volunteer herself who had worked with groups including Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts and Meals on Wheels, she was able to step back and tweak the program to enrich the experience for both students and local organizations alike.

“If [students] work with one group or cause, they get a better experience,” explains Maureen. Therefore, 30 of the 40 volunteer hour requirement must be with the same organization. “They make a really good connection.” Oftentimes, that good connection starts with students indulging their interests, which can mean volunteering with a community organization in an unlikely way. One student, she says, volunteers every October at Fortress of Nightmares at Fort Adams in Newport. The haunted house experience benefits the Fort Adams Trust, a non-profit organization that aims to preserve and protect Fort Adams as a public historic site. “He volunteers there every year and says, ‘I get to scare people!’”

The experience, Maureen says, should explore what students are passionate about. The connection and personal growth from dedicating their time and talent to others lays the foundation for a future that reaches beyond the students’ own personal wants and needs. When a student returned from college to talk to Maureen about the volunteer experience, Maureen explained it this way. “We have you read good boos in high school hoping you’ll continue to read good books. We have you do good deeds hoping you’ll continue to do good deeds.”

For many Rocky Hill students, their service well exceeds the 40-hour minimum. One student was so inspired by her experience during a service trip at an orphanage in Jamaica that she created a fundraiser back home in Rhode Island to benefit the handicapped children there. Her efforts yielded more than 20 wheelchairs for the children.

“I tell them I do things that are my passion,” tells Maureen. The avid music fan assists at Charlestown’s Rhythm & Roots and an annual bluegrass festival in upstate New York. She also volunteers with the Rhode Island Bridge Association. “Those are my passions, bridge and music. That’s what I talk to the kids about – so many things don’t happen unless volunteers are there.”

Rocky Hill students have volunteered as coaches in youth sports programs, at a horse stable offering therapeutic riding programs, organized a food drive for shelter animals or even played poker with residents at an assisted living center. Adds Maureen, “I said, ‘it works for me.’ If kids are inspired, I’ll support them.”